The Call Boy I Met in Paris — Episode 29
Stella reached the Swift residence before Sophie answered their father’s call. She entered his study with outrage arranged across her face and Derek following close behind. “Daddy, Sophie took her boy toy to buy a house today.”
Mr. Swift looked up from his desk. The photograph on Stella’s phone showed Sophie beside Justin, carrying documents marked with the Lake Enterprises logo. “She did what?”
“And she had a huge argument with Derek,” Stella continued. She omitted that she had started the confrontation by trying to steal Sophie’s chosen lot. In her version, Sophie had flaunted an unsuitable husband while publicly humiliating the man their family once expected her to marry.
“She knows exactly how to rile me,” Mr. Swift said. His anger was less about the house than the independence it represented. Marriage had given Sophie access to her mother’s company, and every decision she made beyond his control weakened his hold over her.
Derek stood rigidly near the door. The failed payment and Justin’s calm prediction still burned in his memory. “She made a spectacle of the whole thing,” he said, unwilling to admit that he and Stella had been the spectacle.
“I bet Derek is pissed,” Stella observed with false sympathy. She slipped closer to her father, presenting herself as the obedient daughter who understood the damage Sophie caused. “He didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”
Mr. Swift frowned at Derek. The broken engagement had already created gossip among their business circle, and Stella’s public attachment to Sophie’s former fiancé threatened to deepen it. He wanted control, not another scandal.
Stella saw his hesitation and offered the solution she had been preparing. “Well, what if I marry Derek?” She said it lightly, as though the idea had just occurred to her rather than growing from months of envy and ambition.
Derek turned toward her. Their affair had been exciting when it humiliated Sophie, but marriage carried obligations neither of them had discussed. Still, joining the Swift family through Stella might preserve the alliance he had lost.
“What if I marry Derek and bring the families together?” Stella pressed. “Then Sophie’s ridiculous marriage won’t matter. We can protect the partnership and show everyone that our families are still united.”
“Absolutely not,” Mr. Swift answered. His refusal arrived so quickly that Stella’s confident smile cracked. She had expected praise for sacrificing herself to repair Sophie’s damage.
“Why not?” she demanded. “You wanted Sophie to marry him.” The unfairness struck at an old resentment: Sophie could reject what Stella was not permitted to claim.
“Their engagement is already a scandal,” he said. “If you marry Derek now, our entire family will be a joke.” Society would not see loyalty or strategy. It would see one man passing from one Swift daughter to the other after an affair.
Derek’s face tightened. Mr. Swift had once treated him as an ideal son-in-law; now he spoke as though marrying him were a humiliation. Justin had taken Sophie, the house, and apparently Derek’s standing with the family.
Stella swallowed her anger and softened her expression. Direct rebellion would cost her the advantage she held as the favored child. “I was only trying to help,” she murmured.
Mr. Swift’s irritation eased at once. “If only Sophie were as obedient as you.” The praise was exactly what Stella usually wanted, but today it felt like a chain. Obedience mattered only when it served him, never when it brought her what Sophie had possessed.
She lowered her gaze so he would not see hatred flicker there. Sophie had inherited her mother’s company, escaped Derek, found a protective husband, and now obtained a luxury home at half price. Stella had followed every command and still remained second.
Derek caught her eye. Their shared humiliation formed an agreement neither needed to voice. If Mr. Swift would not bless their marriage, they would find another way to strip Sophie of the advantages Justin kept creating.
After leaving the study, Stella stopped Derek in the hall. “Something is wrong with that man,” she whispered. “Payments don’t fail and recover for one customer by accident. Find out how Justin is connected to Lake Enterprises.”
Derek nodded, remembering the restaurant manager, the expensive suit, and Justin’s perfect confidence. For the first time, his contempt gave way to unease. If the supposed call boy possessed enough influence to control a thirty-million-dollar sale, uncovering his identity might not destroy Sophie—it might reveal that she had married someone far more dangerous than any of them understood.
